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The poker in this story is not the twentieth-century variant known as “Texas hold ’em.”
The poker in this story is not the twentieth-century variant known as “Texas hold ’em.”
Every once in a while, for the best and most altruistic of motives, you play to lose. Not that us Maverels indulge in altruism all that often. Anyway, the aim this time was to let Count Czerknikowski, who seemed to have some sense of honor, think he’d won a prized possession.
Czernikowski liked winning—I guess we all do—but as far as we could tell, he wanted to do it by playing fair, at least according to his own lights. Maybe even by courting danger. Why else keep coming back to places that had already had a fair taste of him (and he of them)? Places like Nuestra Señora del Desierto.
“It was a vibrant missio
